Undercover Economist: You can’t afford to get signals crossed in the underworld

“A wiseguy sees things if there are wiseguy things to see,” wrote Joe Pistone, the FBI agent better known as Donnie Brasco – the name under which he managed to infiltrate the mob. But what are the wiseguy things to see? And how is a wiseguy to know he isn’t dealing with the likes of Joe Pistone?